Construction, Estonia, Financial Services, Real Estate

In the course of the project, one or two half-abandoned apartment houses will be chosen in the city of Kohtla-Jarve and in the  municipalities of Valga and Luganuse each, legal solutions devised for solving ownership issues and residents relocated from the buildings.

Plans are also for unoccupied apartments to be charted and spatial analyses carried out in said municipalities, spokespeople for the Ministry of Finance said.

Minister of Public Administration Jaak Aab said that the issue of half-empty apartment houses affects the living environment and socio-economic situation of the region in question and regional development in general. He said that in collaboration with the three municipalities solutions will be devised that can be used also by other regions experiencing a similar problem.

"Valga has been addressing the problems related to population decline already for decades. Abandoned and desolate houses reduce the value of real estate and the vitality of the whole city," Valga municipality mayor Margus Lepik said. 

The mayor of the municipality of Luganuse, Viktor Rauam, said their municipality has become famous in Estonia for pulling down about 20 half-empty apartment houses in Kivioli town, which has become the center of the municipality following the administrative reform, since 2000.

"Throughout that time we have learned ourselves and tested various methods for solving the problem of apartment houses, spending quite big amounts of time and the municipality's budgetary funds for that," Rauam added. 

The project seeks to produce guidelines for municipalities for preventing and solving the problem of apartment houses emptying of residents in regions suffering from rapid population decline. The findings will serve as basis for developing additional support measures for municipalities and making proposals for drafting potential legislative amendments. 

The project will run through 2021 and its budget totals 803,225 euros, of which 630,000 euros is support for the three municipalities for the conduct of activities in their territory.